Summary of Results for the  1999 Oregon Youth Risk Behavior Survey Serious Problems For Adolescents  Subjected to Anti-Homosexual Harassment

I was first exposed to the hatred felt by many against gay individuals while growing up in a very small city, in southern Ontario. I was 13, and in grade eight at the time, and a new kid in school was labeled a "faggot" by the "in crowd" for no apparent reason. This was my first introduction to both the definition of the word, and to the fear that I slowly developed for anyone whom I suspected of being gay.

Adolescent suicide related to anti-gay harassment? Yes, but if the boy who killed himself was also having problems with being homosexually oriented - which is not known - his parents highly negative attitudes with respect to possibly having had a "gay" son may have factored into the boy's death:

Murders associated with Anti-gay harassment? Boys who don't conform to a set standard of masculine behavior and appearance -- who don't play contact sports, for example, or who are short or slight -- risk being ostracized as "sissies" or, more explicitly, "faggots."

Murders associated with Anti-gay harassment? Re: Charles Andrew Williams and schooting shotting at San Diego's Santana High School. "'They were teasing him, calling him 'country boy.' He didn't dress right; he didn't look right. He was skinny. They called him gay,' she said. ...Referring to a study of U.S. middle and high school students commissioned by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), a GLSEN report concluded, 'For boys, no other type of harassment provoked as strong a reaction on average; boys in this study would be less upset about physical abuse than they would be if someone called them gay.'" (By Dozetos) - "The gunmen in at least five of the major school shootings -- those from Moses Lake, WA; Pearl, MS; West Paducah, KY; Littleton, CO and now Santee, CA -- were reported to have been targets of anti-gay harassment... While we do not know whether anti-gay teasing was a motivating factor here, studies do show that among boys no other type of harassment, including actual physical abuse, provokes as strong a reaction as being called 'gay' at school. The alienating and well-documented effects of anti-gay harassment take a toll -- regardless of the target's sexual orientation." (GLSEN Executive Director Kevin Jennings.) (Reference: Goldstein, Richard (1999). The 'Faggot' Factor. Orange County Weekly, May 21-27.)

Contents

Table 1 - 1999 Oregon YRBS Result Summary For Males & Females (Grades 9 to 12): Harassment Based on Perceived Homosexual Orientation of Individuals: Associations with Depression & Suicide Behaviors.

Table 2 - 1999 Oregon YRBS Result Summary For Males (Grades 9 to 12): Harassment Based on Perceived Homosexual Orientation of Individuals: Associations with Depression & Suicide Behaviors.

Table 3 - 1999 Oregon YRBS Result Summary For Females (Grades 9 to 12): Harassment Based on Perceived Homosexual Orientation of Individuals: Associations with Depression & Suicide Behaviors.

A Section on Homosexuality-Related Bullying Prepared for a New Web Page on GLB Suicide Problems in England, Scotland, and Ireland, with references illustrating that similar abuse is also rampant in Australia.

Note - Statistical Results were generated using SPSS-10 and the  2X2 table available at - http://home.clara.net/sisa/twoby2.htm - on the basis of the data set received from Oregon. Unweighted data was used, but results vary little from what they would be if weighted data was used. Some of the data used is available at -  http://www.ohd.hr.state.or.us/chs/yrbs/hs99/99q012.htm (High School Data).  The Index Page for 1999 Oregon Youth Risk Behavior Survey results: - http://www.ohd.hr.state.or.us/chs/yrbs/hs99/yrbs99.htm and the results are accessed via the title "Harassment at School." All YRBS data may be accessed via Index Page: - http://www.ohd.hr.state.or.us/chs/yrbsdata.htm and, on this page, the PDF version of the Oregon health Division Newsletter reporting the 1999 YRBS data / results for Grade 9 to 12 may be accessed. The URL is: - http://www.ohd.hr.state.or.us/chs/newsltr/trends57.pdf .

The depression / suicidality results for the Middle School 1999 YRBS data set has not been made publicly available. Homophobia tends to be more severe in Middle Schools and the negative results of being subjected to anti-gay harassment maybe be worse than the ones calculate herein for high school students.

Commentary - Had the authorities in Oregon included "sexual orientation" questions, as originally intended to produce the 1999 Oregon YRBS data set,  the study data would have been the most complete in terms of revealing to what degree "The Homosexuality Factor" is associated with suicide problems for male adolescents in American public schools. As is, however, the only fact known is that about 31% of male suicide attempters, 35% of multiple attempters, and and 33% of male suicide attempters who received treatment as the result of their attempt, were in the group of males reporting being harassed (8.2% of males) because they were assumed to be homosexual or bisexual (Table 1). Their odds of attempting suicide are 5-times greater than they are for males not harassed for this reason. Had "sexual Orientation" information been solicited, the representation of "The Homosexuality Factor" in male adolescent suicide problems in Oregon would be known to be much higher than 30 to 35 percent reported in 2 suicide attempt categories. It is likely that "The Homosexuality Factor" is implicated in more than 50% of the most serious adolescent male suicide problems for reasons rendered in a new paper: The Social Construction of Male Homosexuality and Related Suicide problems: Research Proposals for the Twenty First Century. The paper explains why the higher risk for adolescent male suicide problems reported on this web page could also be called "the sissy factor in male youth suicide problems."

Female Adolescents: In this study, female adolescents targeted for anti-homosexual harassment have likelihoods for suicide behaviors, compared to other females, not as high as the difference in likelihoods for suicide behaviors between males targeted for anti-gay harassment and other males. For females, such harassment is associated with about 14 percent of suicide attempts, and 19 to 20 of females who are repeat suicide attempters and attempters for whom the suiicde attempt was assoicated with having received medical attention (Table 1).

Question 28: "During the past 12 months, did you ever feel so sad or hopeless almost every  day for two weeks or more?"

Question 29: "During the past 12 months, did you ever seriously consider attempting suicide?"

Question 30: "During the past 12 months, how many times did you actually attempt suicide?"

Question 31: "If you attempted suicide during the past 12 months, did any attempt result in an injury, poisoning, or overdose that had to be treated by a doctor or nurse?"

The Oregon 1999 Youth Risk Behavior Questions are available at http://www.ohd.hr.state.or.us/chs/yrbs/hs99/yrbsques.htm (High School)  and http://www.ohd.hr.state.or.us/chs/yrbs/ms99/yrbsques.htm (Middle School).

1. Questions Identifying Three Forms of Harassment:

Question 11: During the past 12 months, have you ever been harassed at school (or on the way to or from school) because of your race or ethnic origin?

Question 12: During the past 12 months, have you ever been harassed at school (or on the way to and from school) because someone thought your were gay, lesbian or bisexual?" Count given, not weighted. The weighted percentage is 7.9% for males harassed, as opposed to the "8.2%" raw percentage used, meaning that the generated statistical results are reasonably good approximations of what the results would be had the calculations been done using the data set.

Question 13: "During the past 12 months, have you received unwanted sexual comments or attention at school (or on your way to or from school?)"

2. Race / Ethnicity: For the calculation related to "race / ethnicity," results were generated by using the results for "white" males and male "of color." This latter group does not include the males (n = 152) who did not answer the question on race /ethnicity (Question 4), forming about ??? of the sample. Six of these males had attempted suicide and were not included in suicidality analyses based on race / ethnicity, such as the analysis of males who responded with a "yes" or a No" to the three harassment questions: Questions 11- 13. Male "of color" answered affirmatively to any of the following in Question 4: "How do you describe yourself? (Select one or more responses.) Am Indian / Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Native Hawaiian/other, Multiple - Hispanic, Multiple - Non-hispanic." White males answered affirmatively to the "White" option only. "A" = All Males, "W" = White Males, and "C" = Males Of Color.

3. Statistics: The Odd Ratios are calculated at a "95% Confidence Interval" from a two-by-two table which, in this case (Table 4a), consists of 199 suicide attempters / 1937 non-attempters in "harassed male" category and 162 suicide attempters / 7937 non-attempters in the "non-harassed" male category, producing an OR of 4.1<5.0<6.2. The Pearson's Chi Square value (X²) in this case indicates that the difference between the two paired values would be due to a chance event less than one time in 10,000: p = .0000. The Risk Ratio, also calculated at a "95% Confidence Internval," is the relationship between the suicide attempt incidence in the two categories. In Table 4b, the Odd Ratios and Risk Ratios are calculated on the basis of the multiple suicide attempters. In Table 4c, the calculations are based on the suicide attempters reporting having received medical attention related to their suicide attempt(s).

4. C vs. W: Comparing the Odds of attempting suicide for males of color and white males in the specified category to detemine if the difference would be statistically significant: p is less than or qual to .05.